All clear for Kanoute as Tottenham wrap up deal

By William Johnson

12:01AM BST 05 Aug 2003

Tottenham Hotspur have completed the £3.5 million signing of Freddie Kanoute, West Ham's French striker. after putting the player through several days of rigorous tests on the groin injury which kept him out for four months last season.

Kanoute, who will be unveiled at a press conference today, is the third striker to be signed by Glenn Hoddle this summer following the recruitment of Portugal's Helder Postiga for £6.25 million and Brighton's Bobby Zamora for £1.5 million.

Hoddle's spending is likely to continue as the Spurs manager scours the market for additions to his midfield and defensive options. "It is worrying with the season just a couple of weeks away but we've just got to get on with it and I'm still looking around," he said.

Hoddle was delighted that Kanoute, who made only 12 starts for relegated West Ham last season, scoring five goals, survived the strenuous medical. "Freddie will balance off nicely with the other strikers we have brought to the club," enthused the Spurs manager.

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Chelsea are set to complete the £250,000 acquisition of Nigel Martyn, the Leeds United goalkeeper, in time to make the former England international eligible for the club's third qualifying round ties in the Champions' League.

The UEFA deadline is lunchtime on Thursday and Martyn will complete the move in time to act as cover to first choice Carlo Cudicini, following the serious injury sustained by another new goalkeeper, Jurgen Macho.

Neil McCann, the Scottish winger, is poised to join Southampton from Rangers for £1.5 million. Newly promoted Leicester City are close to signing Blackburn full-back John Curtis, who will become Micky Adams's 11th summer recruit if he passes a medical.

The latest initiative to integrate Rangers and Celtic into the FA Premier League looked doomed to fail last night after leading administrators on both sides of the border expressed strong opposition to the proposal.

Leading the campaign to parachute the Old Firm into the Premiership is Celtic's major shareholder Dermot Desmond, who is threatening to challenge what he considers to be an illegal cartel governing television rights in Britain if his plan fails.

He may have to carry out that legal threat after officials in England and Scotland indicated that the idea would not get off the ground.

David Taylor, chief executive of the Scottish Premier League, suggested any such transfer of their two biggest clubs would cause chaos before concluding: "All this is hypothetical because Celtic have not been invited to join the league in England - and this is not likely to happen."

David Davies, the Football Association's director of football affairs, was dismissive of the idea. "If you took it to extremes you could import teams from all over Europe and get into a situation where Barcelona were representing England in the Champions League," he said.

Davies also voiced his concern over the international future of the home nations. Any cross-border conflict within the British domestic leagues would, he maintains, fuel any FIFA desire to make all four countries play as one team under the British flag.

Watford have urged their former manager, Gianluca Vialli, to drop a High Court action against them following his dismissal more than a year ago.

Graham Simpson, the Watford chairman, said: "I don't think we are a million miles away from Gianluca and hopefully we can talk. I don't think anybody wins from it going to the High Court - apart from the lawyers."